David Fizdale confident Knicks can attract top-tier free agents

The New York Knicks have been mired in mediocrity and plagued by dysfunction for years, but David Fizdale believes the organization is now trending in the right direction. Because of this, the Knicks head coach believes the team will be in the mix to land some of the top-tier free agents set to hit the market.

With the worst record in the NBA last season (17-65), the Knicks have a 52.1% chance of securing a top-four pick in the NBA Draft Lottery and 14% odds of landing the No. 1 selection.

Armed with said pick in the 2019 NBA Draft that ought to land at the very least a top prospect — not to mention potentially Zion Williamson — Fizdale believes the possibility of playing for the Knicks in the Big Apple could prove alluring to big-time free agents.

“The one reason I wanted to go to the New York Knicks is because it’s the New York Knicks,” Fizdale said Monday during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Jump,” as transcribed by Bleacher Report. “I liked that expectation. I wanted to be somewhere where people wanted to win and expected to win.

“I think that we want the type of people that embrace those situations. So I think going into free agency, like I said, we’ve got a lot of good things that we can show and how this is going to be a different deal going forward with the Knicks. I think we’re going to end up doing some good things.”

Fizdale also praised Knicks general manager Scott Perry and president Steve Mills for doing “a heck of a job” setting the team up for future success.

It will nevertheless be a tall order for Knicks brass to convince potential free agents that the organization in poised for a huge upswing after years of being among the NBA’s laughingstock franchises.

That said, it is reportedly a “done deal” that that one of the biggest prizes poised to be on the free-agent market will sign with the Knicks, not to mention said superstar’s good friend as well. So, perhaps Fizdale will be proven correct to have such optimism.